Share via e-mail

New releases

★★ ½The Adventures of Tintin Director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson bring the intrepid boy reporter of Hergé’s classic comic books into the digital new millennium with mixed results. The film is a visual marvel that’s cold to the touch, with a chase-rinse-repeat story line that grows tiresome and motion-captured characters that lack the warmth of human beings. (107 min., PG) (Ty Burr)

★★★ The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo David Fincher disinfects the luridness of the first of Stieg Larsson’s fun-to-read Swedish bestsellers until overheated trash assumes the chilly, clammy precision of a Fincher production, which is to say that the violence is both terrible and extremely alluring. Fincher also clearly adores his brutal (and brutally funny) cyberpunk played by Rooney Mara, whose dead seriousness is a grim hoot. With Daniel Craig, Robin Wright, and Christopher Plummer. (152 min., R) (Wesley Morris)

★★ ½ Three Stars In international restaurant circles where the Guide Michelin series has long been a tastemaker, careers and fortunes can rise and fall on the guidebooks’ annual ratings. The men and women (but mostly men) behind the food are the focus of this documentary by German filmmaker Lutz Hachmeister, which unfortunately delivers far more talking than cooking, and too much of it spent on the guides themselves. Featuring René Redzepi, Nadia Santini, Yannick Alléno, and other elite chefs. (94 min., unrated) (Janice Page)

Previously released

★Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked Young children may enjoy the third film in the series, bland as it is. Alvin and the other five singing chipmunks join their guardian Dave (Jason Lee) for a luxury cruise and end up stranded on an (almost) uninhabited tropical island where they learn to be more self-reliant. David Cross is also on hand, wearing a giant pelican suit, but even that’s not enough to make this fun for grown-ups over the age of 9. (85 min., G) (Joel Brown)

★★★ Arthur Christmas Santa’s Christmas Eve run is imagined as a perfect, paramilitarized operation in a 3-D animated feature from Aardman, the outfit behind “Wallace & Gromit.’’ But when a little girl’s gift is overlooked, Santa’s geeky son Arthur (James McAvoy) is distraught, and races to make things right. The journey can drag a little after the dizzying opener, but the film’s holiday spirit is infectious. (97 min., PG) (Tom Russo)

★★★★ Hugo An exhilarating tale of magic, machines, memories, and dreams. Martin Scorsese marshals the latest movie technology to create a love letter to the earliest movies of all. Yes, it’s a family film - and a great one - but the family Scorsese has really made this for is the 100-year-old tribe of watchers in the dark. With Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Sacha Baron Cohen. (127 min., PG) (Ty Burr)

★★★Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol This is the fourth and most navigable installment in 15 years, and Tom Cruise’s decision to keep making these ridiculous movies doesn’t feel desperate. It feels like exercise. For him. For us. For whoever on the set was responsible for saying, “Tom, that’s a union job.’’ The mission this time? Stop nuclear apocalypse. With Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, and Simon Pegg. The elegant direction is by Brad Bird (“The Incredibles’’). (133 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)

★★★ ½ The Muppets So often with remakes and movies based on a television show, there’s no point. The new Muppets musical-comedy is ingenious. Everything about it is satirical. But the show means something to the filmmakers. They’ve made an uncynical film about resurrecting the brand. It’s an embrace of the spirit of a bygone enthusiasm for show business that, like most Muppets, is fully felt. With Jason Segel, Amy Adams, and Chris Cooper. (98 min., PG) (Wesley Morris)

★ New Year’s Eve Fun in the way that eating at a buffet is fun. It’s two hours of foods that have nothing to do with each other piled high on a plate because it was too cheap to resist. Hilary Swank, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Sarah Jessica Parker, Halle Berry, Ashton Kutcher, and poor Robert De Niro all waiting for one year to drag into the next. (117 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)

★★Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows It has its pleasures, chief among them Robert Downey Jr., but the light has gone from the star’s eyes and the thrill is gone from this franchise. Jared Harris plays the “Napoleon of crime,’’ professor James Moriarty, and the scenes between him and Holmes are the film’s sharpest. Jude Law and Noomi Rapace costar. (129 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

★★ The Sitter “Adventures in Babysitting’’ airlifted into Judd Apatow’s neck of the woods. You get Jonah Hill at his most toadlike, crass racial and sexual stereotypes, more drugs than a DEA evidence room, reckless child endangerment, language to drop a nun, and a very strange white boy crush on all things black and urban. Some laughs, too, but not enough. (81 min., R) (Ty Burr)

★★★ ½Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy The stillness of Gary Oldman as George Smiley is magnificent to behold. This adaptation of the 1973 John le Carre novel, about a British intelligence wonk (Oldman) trying to catch a traitor in his ranks, is a model of smart restraint and telling details - an engrossing movie for grown-ups. With Colin Firth, Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones, and Benedict Cumberbatch. (127 min., R) (Ty Burr)

★★★Young Adult Diablo Cody wrote this pungent, piquant movie about a sputtering young-adult novelist (Charlize Theron) who tries to win back an old, married boyfriend (Patrick Wilson). Cody’s aiming at adolescent archetypes and Theron plays the part in a bulletproof vest. With Patton Oswalt. Directed by Jason Reitman, who also made Cody’s “Juno.’’ (94 min., R) (Wesley Morris)

BostonGlobe.com complimentary digital access has been provided to you, without a subscription, for free starting today and ending in 14 days. After the free trial period, your free BostonGlobe.com digital access will stop immediately unless you sign up for BostonGlobe.com digital subscription. Current print and digital subscribers are not eligible for the free trial.

Thanks & Welcome to Globe.com

You now have unlimited access for the next two weeks.

BostonGlobe.com complimentary digital access has been provided to you, without a subscription, for free starting today and ending in 14 days. After the free trial period, your free BostonGlobe.com digital access will stop immediately unless you sign up for BostonGlobe.com digital subscription. Current print and digital subscribers are not eligible for the free trial.